Sunday, May 30, 2010

Let's get this out of the way. The Gateaux ladies aren't outdoor-types. Especially yours truly. I am a city girl through and through. Not to mention, you should see Miss J. around any flying insect..it ain't pretty.

So, when we met with Madie, we knew that her barn wedding reception would be beautiful, but its location (about 20 miles from the middle of nowhere) would give me the willies.

Oh, how wrong we were! We pulled up to the Enchanted Barn, in Hillsdale, Wisconsin to the sight of our bride in a field having her photos taken with the most idyllic background of grazing horses. Once we got into the barn, it was beautiful, with hundreds of candles hanging from the ceiling, and an entire wall that opened up to that same amazing terrain. It was downright...well, Enchanting.

Anyway, with the barn inspriration in tow, when we did her wedding invitations, Maddie thought it would be cool to incorporate a woodgrain motif. Her colors were bright pink, orange, apple green and black (also, not your typical country wedding colors) so we decided to do black woodgrain, and a vintage-looking country font. It was a great look!

The cake would be covered in bright pink and orange flowers. Each one, hand cut, colored molded, and wired by my happy little staff. I have to admit, color isn't my strong-suit, and I'm a bit apprehensive of such a bold combination, but this little sweetie just worked! We hijacked the guestbook table (they tried to give us a cocktail table with a white linen) to finish the look, snapped some pictures, set up a monster candy buffet, and headed back towards civilization. Can't wait to see pictures from the bride! When we do, we'll be sure to post them!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Amy and Miles wanted an absolutely minimalist cake design. They really wanted the cake to feel sculptural, with some room between the tiers for their florists to pack in solid red flowers. Therefore, the cake needed to be clean, elegant, and non-fussy. What they really wanted, was a completely plain cake, which, we could have accommodated, but then...

It turns out that their inspiration for "sculptural" was based on the fact that they were planning on being married in Miles' grandmothers garden. Once we started talking, I learned that this is not your typical "granny's flower patch". He pulled up some pictures on his phone, and I realized that this woman had some serious style! Her garden was filled with beautiful, modern sculptures.

Once my enthusiasm for the art was made apparent by my squeals of delight, they realized that there were far more possibilities in wedding cake design than they had formerly realized. They pulled up several scuptures for inspiration, and we sketched up several cakes.

It wasn't until they had a photographer capture this photo of one of the sculptures, that we really understood what the cake should look like. I have to admit, it was really hard for a cake lady who is obsessed with perfectly smooth fondant, to deliberately deface a perfectly porcelaine-like fondant cake. But once I got over the initial discomfort, we really go into it. And once we set the cake up with the beautiful red orchid separators that Bastian*Skoog assembled for us, we absolutely fell in cake-love with it!

Fortunately, the couple felt the same. Amy even mentioned that Miles' family caught the reference to the sculpture instantly! She even sent me a couple of cake cutting photos (check out her niece on the right side of the photo, in a state we like to call "Sugar-nirvana".